A subdivision development that failed around the time the housing bubble was bursting took a toll on former Howell Township resident John Kenney. He lost his home right after his first wife passed away.

Kenney is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing developer Dan Boss of fraudulent representation and other wrongdoings. The case is scheduled to go to trial Monday morning.

Kenney and his fellow plaintiffs in the case James Brewer and Tammy Bell, along with Ruth and David Ventura, all used to own property on North Burkhart Road. However, after a plan to develop their combined 33 acres of land into a condominium development failed to happen, all three lost their homes to foreclosure.

“(Boss) said he would handle everything, and all we had to do was sit back and collect the money when it was done,” Kenney said Thursday, adding that he expected to “sit back and make about $690,000.”

However, instead of getting rich off the deal, Kenney lost his home at a very emotional time in his life.

“My (late) wife had cancer and was dying at the time, and she was worried that she was going to die and they would throw us out of the house. She ended up dying before we got kicked out,” he said. “We have two autistic kids, and it was really hard on them to lose our house after losing their mother.”

Kenney now lives with his second wife in Durand. However, the whole situation is still very emotional for him.

Boss said Thursday that he did not mishandle the failed development nor mislead anyone in his business dealings.

“This is a retaliation lawsuit,” Boss said.

“I had loaned money to a partner (Ventura), a substantial amount, and he didn’t pay me back. I filed for collection,” Boss said. “This lawsuit is a response to my collection efforts.”

David Ventura was involved in the North Burkhart Road development deal since its beginnings. He claimed that he was under the impression that Boss would “handle everything,” he said Thursday.

In 2005, Dan Boss drafted an operating agreement for Ventura Capital LLC. The company was formed in order to develop a 69-home condominium site plan that was called the Sunset Chase development. The plan was for each of the three property owners to contribute their 11-acre parcel to Ventura Capital LLC, for a combined 33-acre development.

The partners included Kenney, Brewer and Bell, and Ruth Ventura, as well as Boss Cogo LLC, which was Boss and a group of investors.

Twenty-three sewer and water REUs were allocated to each of the 11-acre parcels in anticipation of the Sunset Chase development.

However, the development never happened. When the three property owners could not afford to pay the tax assessments, all three lost their homes around 2008.

“It upped my taxes to like $21,000 a year, which I could not afford,” Kenney said. “I had been paying something like $1,800. It ruined our credit and everything,” he said.

When asked why things went sour, Kenney claimed that Boss had him under the impression that Boss’ company would cover all of the sewer and water assessments.

“He paid the taxes one year, and then he quit paying them,” Kenney said.

“Then I wondered why I got a tax bill because he was supposed to pay them. Then he tells us it wasn’t in his best interest to go forward with the development,” Kenney said.

Boss maintains that he did not do anything fraudulent nor misleading in his handling of the situation.

“They never put their property into the entity (Ventura Capital LLC). None of the three did. It was their obligation to do so,” Boss said.

Boss claimed that he paid the tax assessment one year.

“It was not our obligation, but we paid it anyway,” Boss said.

He said his former partners lost their homes after that because “they did not pay their taxes.”

“It went wrong. There was a lot of mishandling,” Ventura claimed. “We were supposed to put our properties into the business. It turns out that was never done. Ultimately, there were a lot of mistakes, and the three of us lost our homes,” he said.

Defendants in the lawsuit are Boss, Boss Cogo LLC and Ventura Capital LLC, by default, according to court documents. The case, which was filed in 2012, is expected to go to trail Monday.

Contact Livingston Daily county and townships reporter Jennifer Eberbach at 517-548-7148 or at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTheWriter.